I've had this printer for a couple years now with a CIS system from the start and everything has been great, until today.Month or two ago I built a new system and reinstalled all my drivers including the epson drivers of course. I caught it downloading new firmware and thought I'd stopped it in time, but now I'm not so sure.I used a trick someone else on this forum showed to find out what firmware is on it now.As of now it has WB27BB 35.35

What makes me wonder is this, as of today when my black ran out it told me it didn't recognize the cartridge.I turned it off and back on and it appeared to be fine, showed full level again. All appeared to be good, until I tried printing something. The black started smearing all over t he place on the right hand side of the print and gradually faded out to nothing.Bad nozzle check so I did a cleaning, nozzle check looked better, all were there but the color was kinda grey and muddy instead of black.I could see air in the lines between the carts and the print head, it's been maybe a month since I really used it so I queued 20 prints and let it run.In the process my yellow, light magenta, magenta, and light cyan all ran out and did the same thing. Only color that still prints is the cyan.Is it possible that the firmware is resetting the carts to look full, but telling the print head not to print with them?I'm pulling my hair out here...

So I'd let it sit for 8-10 hours, did another nozzle check, a lot of the colors came back, kind of.Black still looked weak. Light magenta was almost nonexistent. Others were kind of spotty. Cyan was the only one that looked flawless.Head cleaning only made it worse.I'd cleaned the spikes using isopropyl alcohol and that did nothing. Dug out my original epson cartridges and loaded them up, no change.So I think my next step is to clean hardcore.Gonna make a mixture of windex and alcohol and try to push that through the heads. I have a syringe and tubing that came with my waste tank that I believe will work beautifully for this.Feel I don't really have any other choice. I hate the route epson has taken with their newer hardware.

I've let the print head sit on a damp paper towel for hours, changing it out as needed.Nothing.Cleaned the spikes.Nothing.Removed the print head and let it soak in a solution of distilled water, windex and iso alcohol and tried to push solution through the spikes.Can't get any to go. Granted I don't want to push too hard, but nothing is moving in any direction on any of the colors.Don't know what else to try.Any ideas? Anyone?

Took the print head out of the machine itself and immersed it in a diluted cocktail of iso alcohol and ammonia free windex and let it soak for a few days. Put it all back together and re-primed my cis system and did a head cleaning. Almost everything is back except some of the black and almost all of the yellow in the middle of the nozzle pattern. Not sure if it's worth buying empty refill carts and using them as cleaning carts or not. I love this printer and really don't like what epson has come up with to replace them. And because it's as old as it is, a replacement is going to be pricey unless I go for a refurb.

Not sure what I should do, and I get the distinct impression that I'm taking to myself here...

Have you attempted to use the cleaning solution kit that we have on our website? If you ever have a clog we would first recommend to attempt the head cleaning kit. The steps which you have taken are a little extreme only because I would not even dare to remove an epson print head since it would have to be installed perfectly back.

Well I maintain that my situation was pretty extreme then.And I must have got it back in perfect because it looks like a million bucks again.I eventually got it, but it was a long drawn out process. I just don't understand how it got that bad in the first place.

I don't have any empty carts to use as cleaning cartridges, so what I did was took apart my cis and used them. I removed all the ink from the black and yellow carts and filled them with the iso alcohol and ammonia free windex mixture.I took apart a syringe and fit the lower half into the cart where the tubes go and used it as a funnel/ reserve. Did a couple head cleanings and queued up 40 full page black are yellow prints and just kept going until the ink faded out. Takes a while with the ink delivery system these printers use.Once I knew it was in the head I just let it sit with the head parked over a paper towel for 6 or 7 hours.Few more head cleanings, let it sit some more.Put ink back in it the next day and primed it up.